Cantor: We have the votes for Plan B

posted at 3:31 pm on December 20, 2012 by Erika Johnsen

It sounds like Speaker Boehner is angling to push the fiscal-cliff onus back onto Senate Democrats and the president before the holidays hit with his Plan-B gambit, especially now in the light that the Senate is taking off until the Thursday after Christmas — which will leave a mere five days to cobble together any type of deal upon their return. The big question, of course, was whether or not the move would be at all worthwhile, since there are plenty of conservatives expressing their vociferous opposition to said plan and getting it through the House is by no means a given.

At a press conference Thursday, however, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor insisted that they have the votes they need and are getting ready to make moves, via Politico:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said unequivocally Thursday that Speaker John Boehner’s fiscal cliff fallback plan would pass the lower chamber later in the day — at the same time his party’s leadership was working privately to shore up support.

The so-called Plan B Boehner is pushing would extend tax rates for income below $1 million but force families making over that threshold to pay Clinton-era rates of nearly 40 percent. Late Wednesday night, Republican leaders incorporated a proposal to spare the Pentagon from looming spending cuts and shift the reductions to other agencies.

Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, said the plan is the “nation’s best option.”

“Senate Democrats should take up these measures immediately,” Cantor said in the Capitol. “And the president has a decision to make, he can support these measures, or be responsible for reckless spending and the largest tax hike in American history.”

If the House does pass their own version of a fiscal-cliff package, then perhaps that will get the Democrats to finally come forward with more spending cuts, or the GOP might at least presumably have better leverage for pinning an over-the-cliff scenario on the Democrats — but of course, the Senate leader is having none of that. Via The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday the Senate will not vote on Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) “Plan B” to extend tax rates for family income below $1 million. …

“We are not taking up any of the things that they’re working on over there now,” Reid told reporters. “It’s very, very, very unfortunate the Republicans have wasted an entire week on a number of pointless political stunts.”

“The bill has no future, if they don’t know it now, tell them what I said,” he added.

“The Senate bill is the only one that will be signed into law. We could protect middle-class families tomorrow,” Reid said. “The Speaker refuses to bring our bill to the floor because it would pass.”

Uhm, is he referring to the Senate bill that raises taxes on families making more than $250,000/year as the only one that can or should pass the House? What is he talking about? We’re debating right now whether Plan B with its rate hikes on millionaires can even pass the House, let alone President Obama’s no-compromising-on-taxes-for-this-guy proposal. Stop the madness:

“If all you do is whack the so-called rich, you only get enough money about a week of government. So let’s be clear about something: he wants to soak everybody. That’s the only way to do it. And that is exactly what he gets if we do nothing. If that wasn’t obvious before this week, it should be perfectly obvious now.“Here we are less than a week before Christmas, and what’s this President doing?

“What’s his quarterback here in the Senate, the Majority Leader doing?

“They’ve been playing Lucy and the Football with the American people for months. They’ve said no to every single proposal that’s been offered to avoid this tax hike — including their own. They’re running out the clock. Moving the goal posts. Sitting on their hands. They aren’t doing anything.

“Well I say ‘Enough’. Enough. The time for games is over.

“This President may want to soak the American people to fund his vision of a social welfare state. But we’re not going to let him do it.

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The LSM will cheer loudly for his pitch-perfect technique — as he reads a teleprompter for instructions — as well as how sensitive and loving he appears (hey, look, one boy even feinted!).

They’ll invent story lines on how the boys really wanted to be molested, but none can now be contacted owing to back-of-the-head suicides they subsequently committed.

Along with NAMBLA and the ACLU coming to his defense, they’ll rail against Republican and conservative criticisms, claiming they’re all a bunch of homophobic age-ophobes interested only in playing “politics” with such a nuanced issue …

Earth to Congress….We already are a social welfare state! 65% of ALL federal spending over the last ten years has been on welfare, entitlements and transfer payments. If this is not a social welfare state, what is?

Just Do It already. VOTE. Send a Budget to Reid. Send a FU to Obama. In fact send an FU to every unelected proxy the Administration trots out. Just Do It. Produce a reasonable bill that cuts spending and makes permanent the middle class tax cuts – and IGNORE the demands to ‘tax the rich’ – AND gut the AMT and death tax – and shove it across the aisle to the Senate and then shout in front of every camera that the Senate under Harry Reid has failed for nearly FOUR years to carry out one of the few duties required of them by the Constitution. Educate the public, you GOP morons.

and shout in front of every camera that the Senate under Harry Reid has failed for nearly FOUR years to carry out one of the few duties required of them by the Constitution. Educate the public, you GOP morons.

The big question, of course, was whether or not the move would be at all worthwhile, since there are plenty of conservatives expressing their vociferous opposition to said plan and getting it through the House is by no means a given.

This isn’t going to win the GOP any more political capital than a Reid plan passed by the Dem Senate. It’s hard to see where it takes the GOP or the country.

The only plan that stands a chance of real entitlement reform and tax increases will pass by a majority of moderates from both parties.

Yes, Plan B may be all for show, but there’s no harm in it. On the other hand, there can be some good. Afterwards, Republicans will have more leverage to blame the Democrats when all the deals fall through and everyone is upset because we’re all paying more taxes and our country is entering a second, deeper recession. At least Republicans will have a basis for claiming they tried. This claim will be important to squishes and low-information voters–the slugs that make up 40% of the electorate now.

There is no perfect solution. Democrats have us over a barrel now because the nation’s citizens have become stupid and the media is so corrupt. This is the best we can do. Holding our breaths and making threats like angry toddlers won’t help.

Democrats have us over a barrel now because the nation’s citizens have become stupid and the media is so corrupt. This is the best we can do. Holding our breaths and making threats like angry toddlers won’t help.

Burke on December 20, 2012 at 4:34 PM

No, they do not. John “Bonehead” Boehner is a Marxist pretending to be a Republican. The House controls the purse strings. Boehner could get every single spending cut he asks for if one single penny of spending cuts was what he really wanted. All he has to do, is refuse to allow the “Continuing Budget Resolution” to come to the floor. He does that, and no money gets spend by the US Government, period.

Once the money stops flowing, if Bonehead had the testicular fortitude to play hardball, he could name whatever he wanted and get it just to turn any of the money back on again.

I pray Cantor is right. Republicans who stomp their feet and vote no on this because there aren’t enough spending cuts or because it offends their principles are damn fools. Is Plan B ideal? Of course not, but this is not a game of fantasy. Without it income, estate, cap gains, amt taxes go zoom zoom zoom. Time to force the Dems hand.

Republicans who stomp their feet and vote no on this because there aren’t enough spending cuts or because it offends their principles are damn fools.

Buy Danish on December 20, 2012 at 5:03 PM

Funny. That’s the same exact thing people sais when Boner first made this idiotic deal in order to allow Barky and the dems to continue their insane and un-Constitutional spending earlier in the year.

How did this “fiscal cliff” come into existence, to begin with? People are acting as if it was dropped on us by space aliens. NO. Boner fashioned it in collusion with Barky and the Dems, to raise the debt ceiling and allow the unbudgeted, insane spending to continue unabated. And now he’s holding people hostage to stopping the idiotic deal that HE made for a terrible reason?

Keep in mind we have a malignant Narcissist, a vicious, sadistic punk in the White House, who enjoys twisting his knife into the GOP or anyone he sees as “the enemy”. He cares not for the country he is holding hostage. We have to do what we can to weaken him, take the knife away from him.

Bush tax cuts only deal with income tax cuts. We also need to fix AMT, estate tax hikes, Cap gains, etc. We need to win P.R. war. Lo info voters want tax hikes on “the rich”. Unfortunately that’s reality. Raising taxes on millionaires but not on others can be sold, particularly since BO has babbled on about millionaires and billionaires for 4 freaking years.

Pffft. BO has everything riding on raising taxes on the rich. To think he’ll fold and say, “Hey, okay, we’ll keep all Bush Tax cuts and stop my plans to increase Estate taxes and cap gains and everything else because I won” is a crack pipe fantasy. Plan B has a chance to get support from enough Democrats to pass.

No, they do not. John “Bonehead” Boehner is a Marxist pretending to be a Republican. The House controls the purse strings. Boehner could get every single spending cut he asks for if one single penny of spending cuts was what he really wanted. All he has to do, is refuse to allow the “Continuing Budget Resolution” to come to the floor. He does that, and no money gets spend by the US Government, period.

Once the money stops flowing, if Bonehead had the testicular fortitude to play hardball, he could name whatever he wanted and get it just to turn any of the money back on again.

SWalker on December 20, 2012 at 4:50 PM

SWalker, I would personally support that kind of hardball tactic you’re proposing if I thought it would work, even if the shock of cutting off funding caused a great deal of pain to the country and especially to the people directly dependent on those funds. In the long run, it would be worth it.

However, here’s what you might consider. If Boehner proposed cutting off funding, Republicans as a group would immediately be tarred as extreme radicals by the LSM propaganda machine. I saw the government shut down a few years ago. Republicans were excoriated for the “misery” it caused; then the Reublicans caved; and in the end they had to backtrack and start all over again. As a result of that rash snafu (at least as I interpret it, because it was so useless and harmful), the Republicans lost all their political capital and were soundly spanked the next election.

Here’s what I think would happen if Boehner unilaterally declared he was going to “stop spending” if he didn’t get his way. First, you have to understand he would get little support from other Republican Congressional members because those other Republicans would want to be reelected sometime in the future. Without the votes, Boehner might still charge ahead, but all he’d earn for his efforts without a majority are accusations of stupidly.